As Christianity
spread throughout the Roman Empire in the first centuries after Christ, it
became necessary to produce Latin versions of the Bible for those not able
to understand the Greek of the New Testament or Septuagint.

The first translations were
made by individual Christians for use within their own community. These
are known as the Old Latin or Vetus Latina.

Towards the end of the fourth
century, Pope Damasus asked the scholar Hieronymus (St. Jerome) to produce a revised version of the Gospels. Along with Jerome's translation of the Old Testament, an anonymous revision of the rest of the New Testament, and a handful of books from other sources, these later became the standard version, the Vulgate.

The Vulgate
took many years to become established as the principal Latin Bible. In the
meanwhile, the Old Latin versions continued to be used. Some of
these translations are preserved in Bible manuscripts, in the writings of
the Church Fathers and in early Christian liturgies.

These texts are of
great significance for the history of the early Church and the
transmission of the Bible. Most of the Old Latin translations were
made from Greek manuscripts which no longer exist. Although the Latin
texts have undergone their own process of transmission, the original layer
preserves a witness to the Bible, especially the New Testament, which
would otherwise be lost to us. The language and history of these documents
also provides information on the social background of early Christian
communities and the spread of the Church.